1968 music
Music
- Jorge Ben & Toquinho - Carolina Carol Bela [featured on Brazilian Beat]
- River Man - Nick Drake
- Can I Change My Mind - Tyrone Davis
- Requiem pour un Con - Serge Gainsbourg
Reggae Coined
As far as Jamaican record-buyers are concerned, the word reggae was coined on a 1968 Pyramid dance single, "Do the Reggay (sic)," by Toots and the Maytals.
http://www.bobmarley.com/life/musicalinfluences/reggae/
1968 CDs
- Nick Drake (1968) - Five Leaves Left [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Rarely has an album been recorded that is more tragically self-aware than Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left. The title refers to the marking on the inside of a packet of cigarette rolling papers that indicates only five more remain; a prophetic title indeed, given that five years after the release of his stunning debut album, Nick Drake would be dead at the age of 26. -- Dave Rosen, inkblotmagazine.com, accessed Feb 2004 - Sweetheart of the Rodeo - The Byrds [1 CD, Amazon US]
After Chris Hillman dragged new friend Gram Parsons into the Byrds, they made an album as close to a country masterpiece as a rock act could ever make. In fact, the only tunes better than the definitive covers here of songs by Bob Dylan ("You Ain't Going Nowhere"), Guthrie ("Pretty Boy Floyd"), and the Louvin Brothers ("The Christian Life") are Parsons's originals, especially the incomparable "Hickory Wind." Sweetheart wasn't the first country-rock album, but with its gorgeous three-way harmonies and sweet pedal steel, it remains the best. --David Cantwell for amazon.com I LOVE this album. [...] - Soft Machine - Vols 1 and 2 [1 CD, Amazon US]
These albums were originally issued in the late 1968 (vol.1) and 1969 (vol.2)and were not extremely well known even then. But as a serious music freak of the time, I always rated these along with my top five albums of the time. So you know where I'm coming from, the others were Electric Ladyland (Hendrix), After Bathing at Baxter's (Jefferson Airplane), Live Dead and Anthem of the Sun (Grateful Dead). I consider Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper and Satanic Majesties to be precursors of the others and therefore in a different category. I guess they called the category "acid rock." These albums are more loosely associated than the others with that category, but I always thought the comparison a valid one. -- David K. Bell [...] - Silver Apples - Silver Apples [Amazon US]
Oft-sampled electronic pop pioneers the Silver Apples released two exceptionally influential, off-kilter records in 1968 and '69, then apparently vanished. The group was formed in New York City in the psychedelic heyday of 1967 by drummer Danny Taylor and protosynth player Simeon, who quaintly named his hand-built instrument the Simeon. Taylor was a powerhouse of polyphony and his looping, loping playing is the engine that drives the Apples' experimental music, characterized by snippets of found sound, weird and warbly high-pitched singing, stray banjos, and--most importantly--the battering, buzzing, bleeping beauty of the Simeon synth. The two albums are a bizarre, sincere mixture of avant-garde sensibilities, pop melodies, folk-psyche song structures, overwrought poetry, and hefty percussion. It is difficult-to-describe, signature music that ranks high alongside the most forward-thinking avant-prog. The group got back together in the mid-'90s, spurred on by the enthusiasm that many acts showed for their music (the group has been name-checked and more by Spacemen 3, Low, and Stereolab). But as is often the case, the reunion records just don't quite cut it--this one CD has everything you need. Lazy electronic musicians are encouraged to sample the heck out of this band; you won't be the first. --Mike McGonigal for amazon.com - Astral Weeks - Van Morrison [1 CD, Amazon US]
Tracklisting: 1. Astral Weeks 2. Beside You 3. Sweet Thing 4. Cyprus Avenue 5. Way Young Lovers Do 6. Madame George 7. Ballerina 8. Slim Slow Slider
Never mind that Van Morrison is one of the most indelible songwriters of the 20th century--take each album on its own terms. On 1968's seminal Astral Weeks, a twentysomething Van Morrison can be found belting his gospelly, bluesy vocals in just as fine a form as he would be 20 years hence. In the sociopolitical context of the times, the album cried out about such ubiquitous '60s themes as cultural oppression and social upheaval. But it is Morrison's vocal dexterity and passion that maintains such timeless appeal. Take tracks like "Madame George" or "Cyprus Avenue" and you'll find such beautiful mourning, it'll be clear why modern songwriter Sinéad O'Connor once publicly exclaimed: "Van Morrison should be friggin' canonized." --Nick Heil for amazon.com [...] - Caetano Veloso (1968) - Caetano Veloso [Amazon.com]
With the release of this historic album (the first in a handful of eponymous releases that would follow), Caetano catapulted from the mellow bossa nova mood found on his 1967 debut album with Gal Costa, "Domingo," and delivered a lively mixed bag of sounds that boldly established the arrival of Tropicalism. Featuring backing by members of Os Mutantes and Roberto Carlos' RC-7, these songs burst forth with a carefree spirit and unrestrained creativity. Sporting cover art that's very reflective of the times (his name in a psychedelic font, Caetano stares out from an egg-shape being held by a nude Eve-like girl with a dragon and flowers), the disc boasts such classic numbers as "Superbacana" (Supercool), Gilberto Gil's "Soy Loco Por Tí, América" (I'm Crazy For You, America), "Alegria, Alegria" and the movement's manifesto, "Tropicália." The only drawback to this CD is that it ends too soon, clocking in at just over 35 minutes. These selections mark the creative beginnings of a young man who would go on to become one of his nation's greatest artists (along with João Gilberto and Tom Jobim) and earn comparisons to Bob Dylan and Bob Marley for his level of musical influence on Brazil. This album was followed shortly by the equally-historic collaborative release, "Tropicália - Ou Panis et Circenses." --Myke O'Clock via amazon.com